Walking In My Shoes
by feeling brave
Summary: Bumblebee once asked, “I wonder what would happen if an Autobot mind was put into a human body?” Well four Autobots are about to find out and this fic is entirely his fault. Contains pairings, swearing and humans.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: the characters aren't mine, I'm just playing with them.

Author's note: the first thing I am going to say is that although it does have some serious moments I'm writing this purely for fun, the last couple of fics have been quite heavy going and I need to something lighter before I dive back in. The second is that this takes place well after the end of series two (I'm leaving messing about with the canon for later unless the bunnies come for me), the Autobots have been on Earth for around five years, still living in the Ark and still finding a few ways to surprise their human friends. Enjoy.

* * *

**Walking in my shoes**

Chapter 1

It had all happened so quickly, too fast to process and he had barely had time to throw himself over Chip Chase before Wheeljack's lab went BOOM.

He seemed to be the first to regain his senses, because the lab was quiet except for the ringing in his audios. "Oh man," he muttered, "What hit me?" Judging by how fuzzy everything felt, whatever it was had been big.

Pushing through the haze he focused and looked up, but was unable to process why he was lying on his back, or what he was seeing.

"Okay, break it down," he told himself, "Silver face, big silver face, black helm, blue visor, my face, what the…?" suddenly he was fighting down panic and would have been yelling if he could catch his breath well enough, wait... breath?

With an effort he struggled to bring his hands up so that he could see them. They were pink, soft, human and the sleeves of a tan jacket meant, "Chip?"

He found himself reaching for the bond before he realised it wasn't there. Prowl, his mate's absence felt like a gaping hole in his spark, heart, he corrected himself. "This is crazy."

Heavy footsteps sounded above him and suddenly the weight of his usual form was removed.

"Thanks Blue," he said gratefully.

The young mech shook his head. "Not Bluestreak, I'm Spike but I don't know how, I remember walking in here with you and the others to see my dad, an explosion and then… why are you looking at me like that?" he asked and Jazz realised he was smiling.

"'Cause you still sound like Blue," he chuckled, "Help me up would you B… Spike, I gotta get off this floor,"

"Sure," Spike nodded and he carefully extracted Jazz from the debris, "I hate to tell you this Chip but your wheelchair's trashed."

Jazz was about to explain that he wasn't who Spike thought he was when Prowl burst into the room, followed quickly by Ratchet. "Jazz," Prowl cried as he pulled the off-line form of his mate into his arms, "Oh Primus, Jazz."

"Prowl it's alright, I'm here," Jazz said trying to push himself out of the grey metal arms that held him.

"You don't understand Chip," Prowl whispered, "Jazz…"

"I'm Jazz," Jazz said softly, "I donno what Wheeljack was working on, but it switched us, an' Spike an' Blue too."

"So that's…" Prowl began hopefully.

"Hurts don't it," Jazz whispered, "I'm hoping that all we've gotta do is get Wheeljack fixed up an' everythin'll get sorted out."

"I hope so too," Sparkplug's voice said, "Although being human could be very interesting."

Jazz looked at the older man who was wriggling out from under the engineer's body, "'Jack?" he asked uncertainly.

"Got it in one," Wheeljack acknowledged.

"But that leaves Sunstreaker and Carly," Spike gasped.

"Jack don't worry about us, just start running before Sunny wakes up," Jazz instructed.

"We don't even know if they got switched yet," Wheeljack pointed out.

"If the fit Sideswipe is pitching down the comms is anything to go by, I'd say they have," Ratchet snapped. "I reckon you're lucky he's out on patrol right now."

A few faces were appearing at the door and the medic started directing them to get the still off-line Autobots into the med-bay.

"Spike could you hand me over to Prowl please?" Jazz requested. Gently the two 'bots manoeuvred him between huge metal arms, until he was secure in Prowl's embrace. He tried to take comfort in them but the metal armour felt harsh and cold against his skin. "Prowl," he whispered sorrowfully.

"I know, Jazz," his mate said softly.

He rubbed his eyes, as they felt like they were burning and he was surprised to feel moisture on his face.

"You're crying, Jazz," Spike informed him.

"I never realised that it was painful. Does it always hurt?"

"Sometimes," Spike shrugged as if the question had never occurred to him, "I think it depends on how often you do it, so as you've never cried before and I can't remember ever seeing Chip cry either…"

"What the frag is going on?" a slightly hysterical and very female voice demanded.

Welcoming the distraction and shoving his emotions aside, Jazz spoke, "Sunny?" he asked cautiously.

"That's Sunstreaker to you fleshling," Sunstreaker growled, "Hold on, how did you know…?"

"'Cause I'm Jazz. What ever happened switched all of us, human to mech with whoever we were closest to."

"So I'm human, a female human and Wheeljack is responsible," Sunstreaker stated in a low, dangerous tone that lost none of its menace despite coming from the young female, rather than Sunstreaker's usual form.

"It was an accident," Wheeljack responded defensively.

"I'm gonna rip out your internals," Sunstreaker snarled as he attempted to scramble over the ruins of the lab to get to the engineer but he was effectively blocked by Ratchet before he got far.

"You slag him now and we've got no hope of getting you back to normal," the medic pointed out. "At least let him try before you scrap him."

"It should be easy enough once the lab is repaired," Wheeljack said nervously.

Sunstreaker cast a critical eye over the rubble, "But that could take months," he whined.

"I've blown this lab up plenty of times, it shouldn't take more than a couple of weeks," the engineer said in what he hoped was a reassuring voice.

"Weeks," Jazz gasped with a glance to Prowl.

"What are you moaning about? You love humans," Sunstreaker hissed.

"True," Jazz nodded, "But I never wanted to be one."

"Sunny," a rather frightened voice called out and Sunstreaker's demeanour changed as his current form started scrambling through the mess.

A few seconds later and with some help from Ratchet, he came up with a very distressed looking young man cradled in his arms.

"Blue?" he asked softly.

"Yeah, but..."

"It's all his fault," Sunstreaker interrupted him, indicating who he blamed by glaring at Wheeljack.

"Right, everyone into the med-bay now," Ratchet ordered, "You can talk there and I can get some work done."

Prowl stood up with Jazz in his arms, and Jazz found himself wanting to scream. The ground was suddenly too far away and the slick armour gave him nothing to hold on to.

Once Ratchet had gotten all the mechs to a berth and the humans were all on one table, surrounded by monitors and with Prowl hovering over them, he set to work and it wasn't long before everyone was conscious again.

Carly, Chip and Sparkplug all seemed rather disoriented. Chip seemed to be keeping a tight hold on his emotions, Carly seemed somewhat comforted by Spike's presence, but it was all but impossible to gauge Sparkplug's reactions, as most of his face was hidden behind Wheeljack's mask.

Bluestreak cocked his head towards Spike and Carly, "It's kinda odd seeing how we must look from this angle isn't it?" he asked Sunstreaker.

"That's one way of putting it," his partner said sullenly, "I always knew we looked good together though," he added in a softer tone.

"I feel weird," the melodic voice that usually belonged to Jazz said quietly from his berth.

"In what way?" Ratchet asked immediately.

"Kind of like something's missing but I don't know what," Chip mused.

"I'm getting that too," Carly added quietly.

Spike looked introspective for a moment, then shook his head, "I don't feel anything like that."

"Nor do I," Sparkplug muttered.

"It's the bonds," Jazz said in explanation but the blank looks he received reminded him that the humans had never heard of such things. "There are things, personal things that you were never told about us, not because we wanted to keep things from you or because we didn't trust you, but because they were private, and we don't get many things that are."

"Everyone has the occasional secret," Chip put in encouragingly and Jazz gave him a grateful look.

"Bonds aren't as common as they used to be and there are different types," he began hesitantly, "Sunny and Sides are twins, created when a single spark split in two, that gives them a constant awareness of each other and they don't know any other way of being, right Sunny?" he paused long enough to give Sunstreaker time to nod. "But some 'bots choose to bond, either because they're friends that can't imagine their lives without each other or because they are what you would term as lovers. The war's made that kind of dependency impractical, but I was bonded just before it started. The two of you are living in our bodies, but what you are has altered our sparks just enough so that the other half of the bond doesn't recognise you."

"So who are you bonded too?" Carly asked.

"Me," Prowl answered forlornly.

"So that's why you went straight to Jazz," Spike mused.

The tactician nodded, "For the first time in vorns, I couldn't feel him."

Jazz reached for the white hand that had been his touchstone for so long and found that it had turned into a boulder, but he held on to it anyway, wrapping his hand around the smallest of Prowl's fingers, he shared a brief, sad smile with his lover before he turned his attention to the others to see if they had anymore questions.

Wheeljack looked absolutely mortified, he'd never considered that particular consequence. "I'm sorry, Jazz," he said as their eyes met, "You too Sunny, you're going through hell and it's all my fault."

"We'll get through though," Jazz assured him. "This isn't going to beat us," he added with a confident look to each of the others.

Bluestreak quickly added his agreement, "And in the meantime we've got the chance of a life time, I mean no one else is going to get this, I certainly never thought that one day I might be human and I doubt any of the others did, except Spike as he's been an Autobot before…" he cut himself of as he realised that everyone else was looking at him.

"Yeah," Spike continued fairly cheerfully, "but this time there's no nasty side effects, like wanting to smash things and turning evil."

"Wish I could say the same," Sunstreaker growled, "But then in this human body I doubt I could do much damage."

"Oh don't be like that, Sunny," Bluestreak scolded him gently, "There are good things in this, there always are."

"Name one," Sunstreaker challenged.

Bluestreak grinned and caught his partner's lips in a firm, tender kiss. For a moment Sunstreaker fought him but for the first time in their relationship Bluestreak was the one with the bigger, stronger body and he wasn't above using that to his advantage.

When the pair broke apart, Bluestreak looked up to see his own face and Sunstreaker's usual visage staring at him.

"Are you and Sunstreaker bonded too?" Carly asked.

"No," Bluestreak answered as he felt his current face heat up, "not yet anyway, we met as the war really started getting nasty and by the time we were ready it wasn't worth the risk."

"Risk?" Carly queried.

"There are a few draw backs to being bonded, the main one being that if one 'bot dies the other rarely survives long, before the war it didn't matter much as we're basically immortal but battles make death much more common and with Sunstreaker being a twin and bonded already it's not just us we have to think about…"

"There's me too," Sideswipe finished for him as he stormed into the med-bay in a fair impression of one of his brother's worst moods. Fury burned almost white in his optics and he glared at his brother's partner. "Ratchet explained most of what happened but I didn't believe it until now, so Spike's Blue, which of you is Sunny?"

All eyes and optics turned to the only female human and Sideswipe's rage was forgotten as he burst into slightly hysterical laughter while several of the others struggled to keep their faces neutral.

Sunstreaker's growl was enough to silence his twin but any rant he was about to go on was postponed by the arrival of Optimus Prime.

"What's the prognosis Ratchet?" he asked calmly, although his optics flickered worriedly over the eight patients.

"Apart from being in the wrong bodies, they're all fine, a few bumps and scrapes but nothing that won't heal," the medic answered.

"That's good," he said with obvious relief, "Wheeljack, I need a report on what happened as soon as possible."

"I'll get right on it," the engineer responded glumly.

"As for the rest of you, I cannot expect you to return to your duties immediately, but if any of you feel inclined to do so, every effort will be made to accommodate you."

"Thank you Optimus," Jazz nodded, "But I think I might need a few days leave."

"Jazz…" Prowl began sympathetically.

"Don't," his lover warned him, "I'm not helpless but if you treat me like I am, then that's what I'll become."

"You're already planning something aren't you?" the tactician asked.

Jazz nodded again, "Could you take me to see Perceptor? I think he might be just the mech for this. Guys, Sunny, I'll catch up with you in a while."

Sunstreaker shot him a filthy look, but said nothing as Prowl picked Jazz up carefully and they left the room.

"What's he planning?" Chip asked suspiciously, "I mean it's my body, he could have asked."

"It's always difficult to tell with Jazz," Wheeljack shrugged, "But you know he won't do anything that'll harm you, right?"

"If it's bothering you, go after him, I'm sure he won't mind," Bluestreak suggested.

For a moment Chip seemed to consider it, "No, I have to trust him, I'll ask him when he comes back."

"So what do we do?" Sunstreaker asked.

"Get something to eat, and get used to your new situations," Ratchet suggested, "As far as I'm concerned you're all good to go but any problems will be reported to me immediately, clear?"

After various assurances had been made the three humans and five mechs left the med-bay and headed for the rec room.

Sideswipe walked between the mech that usually his twin and the human whose body he was currently borrowing, watching them both and trying to understand what was happening, until Sunstreaker started growling at him again and he settled for just hoping that everything would be sorted out soon.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own the Transformers, I just like to write about them.

* * *

Chapter 2

The rec room was mercifully empty when they arrived; most of the Autobots were on shift or patrol, so they had the place to themselves.

Spike started grumbling about not being able to have a sandwich almost immediately, which prompted Bluestreak into asking various questions about human food to anyone who would answer, while Wheeljack explained the different grades of energon to Sparkplug, who sighed heavily and asked if coffee would do his systems any harm.

Sunstreaker opened the refrigerator that contained the human food and looked at it dubiously, "So what's good?" he asked.

"Anything but the tub marked 'chilli'," Spike grinned, "Dad makes it and it'll blow your socks off."

"Thanks for the warning," Bluestreak nodded as he glanced at his feet with a puzzled expression before he stepped up beside his partner, "What's that?"

"Ham."

Bluestreak inspected it and continued quizzing Spike on the merits of various foodstuffs, Wheeljack sniffed the 'chilli' suspiciously and opted of something safer. He finished up making a plate of sandwiches, as Bluestreak's natural inquisitiveness prevented him from making a decision and Sunstreaker didn't seem to want to do much of anything except glare.

As they finally took their seats around the table, Jazz and Prowl joined them. Chip didn't even bother to hide his curiosity and asked what he'd been up to at the first opportunity.

"I can't rely on others to carry me around," Jazz explained, "So I went to see Perceptor about making me something."

"You could have asked me," Wheeljack put in.

"You're going to be busy," Prowl snapped.

"Damn straight," Carly snapped, "Spike and I are getting married in three months and if we're not back in our own bodies by then so help me I'll…"

"'Jack will have us all back to right long before then," Jazz soothed her in a tone that left no room for argument before he looked back to the engineer, "But if it means that much to you, swing by his lab tomorrow morning," Jazz added in a calmer tone, "I can't imagine that you'll be able to do much until the your lab is cleared anyway."

Wheeljack nodded and looked at the plate in the middle of the table, "So, who's first?"

"This is still all your fault," Sunstreaker said pointedly.

"Sunny that's enough," Jazz and Bluestreak said together, and to save any further arguments Jazz picked up one of the sandwiches and bit into it.

An assortment of flavours burst into his mouth as he started chewing slowly.

"Well?" Bluestreak prompted him.

"It's good," he announced with his mouth full, "What is it?"

"Tuna, mayo and salad," Spike informed him, "Nothing ground breaking but it's nice enough."

Encouraged by Jazz' example Bluestreak and Wheeljack selected something for themselves. Sunstreaker was the last to give something a try but he did have the grace to deem it, 'not bad,' after a few bites.

After that there was a brief flurry of activity as the four humans tried each other's food and compared flavours, so it was a few minutes before any of them realised that not one of the 'bots had tried the energon that Sideswipe had gotten for them.

"Go on," Bluestreak prompted them, "It's good and you can't really function without it, so you're going to have to have some sooner or later."

Spike took the plunge first and sipped the liquid.

"So?" his father asked.

"It's okay, doesn't really taste of much but it kinda tingles."

The other three gave it a try and agreed that it wasn't unpleasant.

"I'm still going to miss coffee though," Sparkplug muttered.

"What's coffee?" Bluestreak asked. He was really starting to regret that he had paid very little attention to what humans consumed, but he'd never thought that one day he might need the information.

"Something I doubt you'll ever need," Sparkplug chuckled, "But there's a pot on the side if anyone else fancies some."

Wheeljack rose and retrieved a glass container of almost black fluid, four cups and, at Carly's suggestion, milk and sugar.

Bluestreak tried some and made a face.

"Too much of this could be a bad idea," Jazz said with a mischievous grin.

"Why?" Prowl asked, his tone making it obvious that he wasn't sure that he wanted to know the answer.

"Well you know how I get on too much high-grade…"

Wheeljack made a half-hearted attempt at taking the cup from the younger man but Jazz had lost none of his reaction speed because of the body-swap and pulled the cup close to his chest to keep it safe.

The four 'bots that were usually human watched them in puzzled amusement and seeing their confusion, Bluestreak took it upon himself to explain things. "Most mechs relax after a few cups of high-grade but it makes Jazz hyperactive."

"I can actually be worse than Blue," Jazz interjected, "Drives Prowl nuts."

"Doesn't do the rest of us any favours either," Wheeljack added, "Jazz with too much energy usually results in him teaming up with Sideswipe and from there anything is possible. The problem is that even when he's over-energised, Jazz is much better at covering his tracks than Sides."

"When your partner is also your commanding officer, you have to be," Jazz finished.

"I'm going to pretend that I didn't hear that," Prowl said dryly and his bond-mate shot him a winning smile that had lost none of its potency in the switch.

The conversation continued for a while but as no one really felt up to answering the barrage of questions that the rest of the Ark's crew would no doubt pose, they retreated to the quarters the twins shared before the shift change was due.

There, the question of who was going to sleep or recharge where arose.

"Do I have to recharge with those two?" Sideswipe asked with a gesture toward Spike and Carly.

"You stay in the same room even though Sunstreaker and Bluestreak are a couple?" Carly asked in surprise.

"Most of the time," Sideswipe nodded, "Sunny and I don't like being separated and with our bond, I know what he's doing anyway, so it doesn't make much difference. I do have my own partner though and sometimes I stay with him."

"Is every 'bot in the Ark at it?" Spike asked before he really thought about how best to ask the question. "I mean, we thought we knew a lot about you, but you've given us more surprises in the last hour than you have in the last five years."

"We know that it's a lot to take in, Spike," Prowl began diplomatically, "But this unit has been together for a long time. We've had to trust each other, and in most cases that trust has led to strong friendships, but in a few it's progressed into love."

"To answer your question," Jazz continued, "No, not all of us have partners. I'd say about half the Arks crew, but some of us, like Prime and Ironhide left theirs on Cybertron."

"So Prime has a…" Sparkplug said hesitantly.

"A femme," Wheeljack said, "a female by your standards but the difference is more of a personality based than anatomically."

"Do you have someone, Wheeljack?" Carly asked.

The engineer nodded, "But what he'll make of this is anyones guess, he's not really a fan of humans."

Bluestreak interrupted any further line of inquiry by yawning loudly, and then looking surprised enough to make a few members of the group grin at him.

"I guess that brings back to our original subject," Jazz mused, "So what are we going to do Prowl?"

"Technically, as third in command, berth allocations are your responsibility," the tactician shot back.

"I've been relieved of duty," Jazz pointed out with a chuckle.

"Then ask Ironhide," Prowl responded, a triumphant smile pulling at his lip components.

"No one listens to him anyway," Jazz smirked, "Okay," he sighed, "Well, us humans are easy as we have quarters that are adapted for us. Sparkplug, you might as well take over Wheeljack's rooms, and I should think there'd be enough space to put Chip in with you, Spike and Carly can recharge here but Sides, I think you'd be better off moving in with…" he suddenly trailed off and looked towards the red twin.

Sideswipe shrugged, "They're going to find out sooner or later," he mumbled and four pairs of optics turned to him curiously. "It's Ratchet,"

"How on Earth did…?" Sparkplug exclaimed before he clamped his own hand over the place where his mouth would have been if it hadn't been for the mask Wheeljack always wore.

"He got me drunk," Sideswipe answered without hesitation, but there was a hint of mischief in his optics as he watched Sparkplug try to process the information. When it became clear that the Lancia's C.P.U. wasn't going to crash he shrugged and looked at Jazz. "It's almost a shame he didn't get switched with Prowl, that would have fragged his logic circuits for sure."

Sparkplug chuckled half-heartedly, "I guess I deserved that," he admitted, "I'm sorry Sideswipe, but Ratchet would be the last mech…" he cut himself off hoping that he hadn't already offended the red twin.

"The way Ratchet tells it, they got each other drunk," Jazz grinned, "But from what I've seen humans tend to go for partners that have a lot of common interests," he continued in a more thoughtful tone, "That's not often the case for us, we look for someone who compliments our personality. Look at Prowl and I, we're opposites in nearly every way, but that works for us, because where one of us might struggle with something, the other can step in and help out."

"I guess that makes sense," Sparkplug nodded, "Or at least as much sense as anything else that's happened today. But, if you guys don't mind I'm going to turn in and if I'm lucky this will all turn out to be a really odd dream. Are you coming Chip?"

"In a while."

* * *

With his farewells said Sparkplug left the room. He knew where Wheeljack's quarters were, he'd even visited them once or twice, but it wasn't until he reached the door that he realised he had forgotten to ask the engineer how to get in.

"Did you forget your pass-code again?" a smooth voice asked him while he was wondering what to do.

"Not as such," Sparkplug answered, before he turned to see Mirage heading toward him.

"It's a good thing that you gave it to me then, isn't it?" the spy grinned as he quickly entered the code.

Sparkplug let out a soft chuckle of relief as the door opened, "It's about time something went my way," he mumbled.

Mirage nodded sympathetically, "I heard you blew yourself up again, are you okay?"

"_He thinks I'm Wheeljack, and he _did_ mention a partner,"_ Sparkplug realised just a second too late to stop the spy taking his hand, "Mirage, I…" he began hesitantly.

"It's alright," Mirage assured him tenderly, "I know that Ratchet has probably threatened all sorts of things to make sure you get a good recharge, but I won't stay long."

"_How on Earth do you give a giant alien robot the brush off?"_ Sparkplug wondered with detached amusement. He felt as if his whole world had stopped making sense and to make matters worse, Mirage seemed to be moving in for a hug, or whatever giant alien robots did when they were more than just good friends, "I'm not Wheeljack," he said in a rather embarrassingly high-pitched squeak.

At least it made Mirage pause, "What?" he asked in a voice filled with confusion.

"I'm not Wheeljack," he repeated, grateful that at least he sounded calmer this time, "He was working on something that switched personalities, he'd mentioned it to me before, he liked the idea of being human just for a day or so, for scientific reasons or whatever logic his cracked processor uses, maybe he just thought it would be fun, I don't know, but that's what blew up, and it switched all of us."

The blue and white mech eyed him suspiciously. "So if you're not Wheeljack, who are you?" he asked tentatively.

"Sparkplug."

To his credit Mirage didn't fall over as he pulled away sharply, as Sparkplug was fairly sure he would have done if he had been in the mechs position, but Mirage did look horrified. "You mean to tell me that…" he gasped, "I've…" Mirage stopped dead, "Someone could have told me," he muttered angrily, "Most 'bots know that my comms haven't worked since the last battle, Primus above."

"I'm sure Wheeljack was going to tell you, but today has been a lot to take in, for all of us," Sparkplug said hurriedly. He was surprised to realise that he felt rather sorry for him. Mirage was among the more standoffish mechs on the Ark and didn't seem to have many friends, but it was obvious by then that he cared deeply and maybe even loved the engineer.

Mirage glared. Maybe trying to be sympathetic wasn't the way to handle him, but before Sparkplug could say anything else, the mech stalked off without a backwards glance.

* * *

As Sparkplug was having his rather-too-close-for-comfort encounter, the four current humans had left the twins' quarters, and headed down to the rooms set aside for their use, with Chip carrying Jazz carefully.

Sunstreaker and Wheeljack headed inside as soon as the door was open, leaving Chip and Jazz in the corridor while Bluestreak waited patiently to help his friend inside.

"Jazz," Chip said timidly, "Can I talk to you before you go?"

"Sure, Chip," his usual voice answered him, "What's on your mind?"

"I just wanted to make sure you were okay, you got a bad deal on who you got switched with after all."

"No, I didn't," Jazz disagreed.

"But…"

"Listen to me for a minute. We're lucky in a way that it was you I got switched with. Sunny and probably Blue would both struggle with this, I don't know about 'Jack but I know I can deal…"

"How…?"

"Do me a favour Chip?" Jazz requested, "Take off the visor."

"Huh?"

"Just do it."

It took a moment for Chip to work out how to do it, but he soon removed the band of blue crystal that usually hid Jazz' optics. "Is there a program I'm missing?" he asked, "I can't see."

"You're not missing anything," Jazz informed him, "Early in the war a city, Uraya, was destroyed. I was far enough away to survive, but the heat of the blast made a mess of my optic sensors. The little sight I still had wasn't much use so I started using scanners instead, "

"I'm sorry," Chip murmured sympathetically.

"Don't be. As far as I'm concerned, it was a fair price. I gained a lot more than I lost and I adapted, and it's the same with this. There'll be challenges, I know that, but I can beat them, always have."

Jazz watched as the mech carefully replaced the visor and looked down at him, "I never knew," he said weakly.

"Not many do, just the medics, Prowl of course, and a handful of others. By the time I joined this unit I already had the visor and I can see better with that than I ever could without it."

"How long were you blind for?" Chip asked as he replaced the band of blue glass.

"A little over twenty seven vorns," he hesitated as he tried to do the maths and found himself missing his C.P.U., "Somewhere 'round two thousand years."

"That's a long time," Chip agreed, "Thank you, for reassuring me."

"Anytime Chip, take care now," Jazz grinned as Chip lowered him gently into Bluestreak's arms.

"You too," Chip nodded and he left them quickly.

"What a day," Jazz murmured, "You okay?"

"I think so," Bluestreak answered, "It's a lot to get used to but there are bonuses," he smiled.

"There usually are," Jazz grinned, "I learned that a long time ago."

"In Uraya?"

Jazz nodded, "If I hadn't been there I wouldn't have found you, and I wouldn't have missed out on that for the world. C'mon let's get inside before 'Jack starts taking things apart to see how they work."


	3. Chapter 3

Author's note: Okay, I'm well aware that it's been an age since I last updated, and for that I can only apologise, life has been chaotic for me and from what I understand it has been worse for my darling Daebereth, so I've decided to go it alone and hope she can forgive me and my lousy grammar because it's high time this was finished and I want to press on, here goes nothing.

Chapter 3

It was the regular beeping of an alarm clock that woke Jazz the following morning, for a moment he just glared at the offending device, cursing its creator and making a mental note to replace it, or at least set it to a more reasonable time.

As he started to push himself out of the warm bed Wheeljack stuck his head around the door, "Do you need a hand?" he asked kindly.

"Thanks 'Jack," Jazz nodded gratefully, "Bathroom would be good."

"No worries," the older man assured him, "Human bodies all seem to run to the same basic pattern," he lifted Jazz as gently as he could and carried him to the en-suite.

A few minutes later Jazz was back in his bedroom and looking distainfully at Chips wardrobe, as Chip didn't live at the Ark full-time there wasn't really much in it and what was there was simply not Jazz' style, begrudgingly he settled on a pair of well-worn jeans and a t-shirt before Wheeljack carried him into the main living area.

One glance told Jazz that his friend had been halfway through preparing breakfast when he had heard the alarm clock, "Can I help with the rest?" he asked.

"Sure," Wheeljack answered, snagging up a stool with his foot and dragging it over to the counter. "There's all the bits you need, you make a start on the pancakes while I try to get Sunny and Blue out of bed."

"Yeah, good luck with that," Jazz smirked.

Less than a minute later Jazz estimated that Sunstreakers stream of curses could be heard three decks down and Wheeljack returned rubbing his ears, "Being human has done nothing to improve his temper," the engineer grumbled.

The saboteur tried to look concerned but if he was honest he was too busy enjoying himself, he was pretty sure he'd got flour everywhere but the smell of his first pancake cooking was worth a little mess.

Wheeljack chuckled at the sight of him, "I leave you alone for a minute and look at the state of you," he scolded.

Jazz laughed and flipped the pancake effortlessly.

"Show off, where'd you learn that?"

"Prowl and I rescued a bunch of kids from a mud-slide a year or so back, they were cold and hungry, and the evac team were busy elsewhere, I'd been camping with Spike a few days before and still had a few things sub-spaced."

"So you made them pancakes," Wheeljack guessed with a fond smile.

"And maple syrup," Jazz finished cheerfully, "check the cupboards will you and see if we have any of that, I always wanted to try some."

"Only you," Wheeljack muttered as he started searching the kitchen.

"Something sure smells good," Bluestreak said enthusiastically as he joined them, "What's cooking Jazz?"

"Grab a plate and find out Blue, is the ray of sunshine joining us?"

"He's getting dressed, last I saw he was glaring at Carlys wardrobe."

"I hear that, seems like all these kids wear is work-shirts and jeans. 'Jack how's the search coming?"

"I'm reorganising these cupboards later," the engineer murmured, "Aha, what's that?"

Jazz grinned to himself and flipped another pancake to impress Bluestreak.

"Found it," Wheeljack called triumphantly, "Here you go Blue, try some of this."

The younger man poured the sticky liquid over his breakfast, took a mouthful and beamed, "This is great," he loaded his fork again and fed it to Jazz who was still busy cooking.

"Oh, that's good," he agreed, "'Jack yours is ready," he added before he raised his voice, "Hey, Sunstreaker, get a move on or there won't be any left for you."

"I'm coming, I'm coming," an irate voice called back, and a moment later the sound of light foot-falls on the stairs announced the arrival of the last of their group, Sunstreaker breezed into the room, immaculately dressed and beautifully groomed.

Jazz let out a low whistle of admiration and grinned disarmingly before Sunstreaker could say a word.

"Damn," Bluestreak said appreciatively.

"I may not like being human," Sunstreaker stated, "But that doesn't mean I can't look good," he dropped a kiss onto his lovers lips, glanced reproachfully at the mess Jazz had created during his preparations and headed for the coffee maker.

As they finished their leisurely breakfast Prowl arrived, "Looks like my ride is here," Jazz said cheerfully, "Later guys."

"Is it still okay if I come with you?" Wheeljack asked.

"Sure," Jazz agreed, "Which means Sunny and Blue have the pleasure of doing the dishes."

"How is that fair?" Sunstreaker protested.

"Chefs don't wash-up my friend," Jazz informed him as Wheeljack carried him out to Prowl.

Sunstreaker looked at Bluestreak hoping for some support but the young man shook his head, "Jazz worked hard to make all this for us," he reminded his lover.

"Okay," Sunstreaker sighed, "But Jazz is going to pay for sabotaging the kitchen."

~*~

The short trip down to Perceptors lab was quiet, Prowl seemed half lost in thought, Jazz wasn't sure what he was supposed to say to his partner and Wheeljack for the most part was just trying to keep up with the tacticians purposeful stride.

Prowl didn't bother to knock before he entered the lab, Perceptor rarely, if ever, noticed anyway.

"Hey Perce, you got something for me?" Jazz asked when the scientist failed to notice their entrance.

"Hello Jazz," the microscope said in a slightly surprised tone, "Yes I have, if you would follow me?" he beckoned and led them deeper into the lab to a small work bench that supported what appeared to be a mass of straps and wires.

"I've made it as light as possible," Perceptor informed them, "And as simple as I could, although what you asked of me wasn't easy."

"Yeah but you love a challenge Perce," Jazz grinned.

Wheeljack tilted his head in confusion, "What is it?"

Perceptor glanced at him distractedly, "A stripped down version of the Exosuits we created for the humans to wear in space. As they work by thought process rather than muscle power Jazz should be able to utilise it."

"Ingenious," Wheeljack nodded.

Perceptor smiled at the praise, "Jazz may require your assistance to put it on," he suggested.

"Sure," the engineer agreed, and while Prowl provided his partner with support he helped fasten the younger man into the harness.

Jazz laughed as he sat on the edge of a workbench and kicked his legs, "Thank you Perceptor," he said gratefully, "This is fantastic."

"Don't thank me yet," Perceptor warned, "I cannot promise you that learning to walk in it will be easy."

"I guess it's time we found out," Jazz murmured, with a nervous look to each of his friends he gingerly pushed himself closer to the edge of the bench.

Wheeljack moved to his side quickly, "I'll take your weight, you concentrate on walking," he offered.

With one last deep breath Jazz slid to his feet, being upright felt odd even though it had been less than a day, Chips leg muscles protested at the weight that was on them but he wasn't about to let that stop him.

Hesitantly he lifted his foot, he felt off balance immediately and would have fallen if Wheeljack hadn't held him tight, "This ain't as easy as it looks," he grumbled as he made another attempt and succeeded in putting one foot in front of the other.

A few minutes passed, Jazz stumbled a few times but pushed on and slowly found his balance, Prowl stood over him nervously, ready to catch him if Wheeljack couldn't but he needn't have worried, Sparkplug was the oldest of the humans but he was a long way off frail, years of working tough jobs had strengthened him and he had lost none of that power during him time with the Autobots.

Eventually everyone was satisfied that Jazz was stable enough to take a few steps alone, trying to ignore the tense atmosphere in the room he took a deep breath, and moved forward at what he had heard the humans refer to as a snails pace, slowly but steadily he made progress, he had to admit that he was less than graceful but it was a vast improvement on his earlier attempts.

"I think you've done enough for now," Wheeljack advised him, but Jazz shook his head.

"Not yet," he answered breathlessly, "I wanna get this right."

Most of the morning was spent in the lab, but eventually an exhausted but proud looking young man walked out of Perceptors lab with Wheeljack at his side and Prowl watching over him, his body ached but he was to pleased with himself to care, to him a challenge was something to be risen to and as far as he was concerned he had beaten this one fair and square.

Prowl left the two humans at the door to their quarters, "He hasn't said much today," Wheeljack remarked as he let them in.

"I don't think he knows what to say," Jazz replied sadly, "He wants to help all he can, but he's gotta be close to fritzing his logic circuits." A brief glance round the room told him that they were alone and he sank gratefully onto the sofa.

"I'm sorry Jazz," the older man said softly, "this whole mess is my fault,"

Jazz looked at him sharply, "Don't you dare," he said in a quiet but obviously angry tone, "Being sorry isn't going to help anybody, get over yourself and enjoy this while we have it,"

"But…"

"That's an order," Jazz growled, Wheeljack looked stunned but the younger man didn't seem to care, "Once your lab's up and running again you're not going to get much time, so get out there and make the most of now,"

Wheeljack didn't need telling twice and Jazz was thankful for that, he had always believed that there was a time and a place for being a commander and he was certain that this was not it, more than anything he needed his friends to help him through. With a tired sigh he stretched out on the seat and allowed himself some much needed rest.

~*~

An hour or so later he woke again, he was still alone but the need to do something forced him up, thinking of his earlier fruitless search for decent cloths he decided to see if Spike had anything that was worth wearing and headed up the stairs to the room that Bluestreak and Sunstreaker had commandeered.

After a while he settled on a pair of black jeans that were loose enough to go over the Exo supports and a rock-band t-shirt before he stepped up to the mirror. He'd never seen the clothes before and assumed that they were unwanted gifts, but mostly he was just glad to be wearing something different.

Jazz soon decided that Chip had become a good-looking young man in the time he had known him, contact lenses had replaced the thick glasses, and years of pushing himself around in a wheelchair had toned his upper body well and warm brown hair (that Jazz had once heard Spike refer to as a pudding-basin cut) had grown out into a pony-tail that hung down his back. On a whim Jazz pulled out the band and shook his head so that soft hair fell loose.

"You look more like a musician than a scientist now," Bluestreak observed as he came through the door and lent against the frame, "So this is what you were up to earlier."

"I couldn't have stayed in that chair, even if it was still in one piece," Jazz admitted, "So what do you think?"

"That you don't look much like Chip,"

"Which is what I was aiming for," Jazz grinned, "He's a good kid, but he's not my style."

"True enough," Bluestreak nodded, "So now you're up and walking what's next? The Olympics or will you settle for climbing Everest?"

Jazz grinned at Bluestreaks teasing, "Right now I'll be happy with dinner, come on, let's see what we can find."

The other man looked a little uneasy, "I'm not sure how to tell you this but Sunstreaker is cooking, and he says you're doing the dishes as pay back for the mess you left this morning."

"Guess I earned that," Jazz chucked, "But Sunny in the kitchen, that's gotta be worth watching."


	4. Chapter 4

Author's note: Special thanks go out to Ditzymusiclover and Theshadowcat as they both wanted to see Sunny suffer and Ditzy wanted to know how Chip would react to his make-over, I'm actually really glad she asked as Chip was the human I always found least annoying and the point to the original scene I had planned for him ran away and hid somewhere.

This chapter is more the result of a bunny attack than anything else, I've had the first paragraph knocking around for about two years so it's actually a lot older than the rest of the story but I never knew what to do with it until now, but thanks to a suspiciously co-operative Mirage it now has a home, and the rest is just me playing. Enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 4

Instinct told Prowl that there was someone standing behind him, he rarely gave himself over to something that to him seemed illogical but there was no other way he could explain it. He turned around half expecting to find Jazz standing at his shoulder but there was no one there.

With a shrug he turned his attention back to Blaster and realised that the mech hadn't even noticed his lapse in concentration, but a few minutes later as he left communications the sensation returned, he chose to ignore it, blamed the stress of the last twenty-four hours and carried on with his work.

The _accident _the day before had left him with plenty to do, duty-shifts had to be rearranged, Jazz's condition left a gaping hole in the command structure as well as his spark, and security had to be tightened so that the Decepticons couldn't find out that four of their number were currently vulnerable humans.

It was late, even by his standards, when he was finally satisfied that he had done enough, and there was no sign of anyone as he left his office, but he couldn't shake the odd itch that had dogged him every time he had gone out, he decided that if it was still there after he'd gotten some recharge he would consult Ratchet and headed to the rec room to get a ration before he turned in.

He hadn't intended staying, but somehow the empty room felt peaceful, and seemed to soothe his senses, so he helped himself to a small measure of high-grade, and lowered himself into one of the more comfortable seats with a grateful sigh.

"Mind if I join you?" a disembodied voice asked after a minute or so, Prowl jumped, and barely stopped himself from spilling his energon before realisation dawned in his processor.

"Mirage?" he asked hoping that it was the spy, because if it wasn't the only logical conclusion was that he was going insane.

To his relief the blue and white spy materialised in front of him, "I didn't mean to startle you," he said in a slightly abashed tone, "I thought you knew I was here."

"You've been following me all day, haven't you?" the tactician asked.

"On and off," Mirage admitted as he collected his own portion of high-grade and sat down opposite the black and white, "I wanted to talk but didn't know where to start, you and I aren't exactly friends."

Prowl covered a smirk by sipping his high-grade, that was an understatement, less than three cycles after Mirage had joined their unit Prowl had been forced to put the spy in the brig after he had assaulted Jazz, the tactician didn't hold a grudge, the incident had mostly been a misunderstanding but the two of them had little in common anyway and Prowl couldn't recall spending anytime with the other mech unless someone else was present.

"What's on your processor?" the Datsun asked once he was sure that he could keep his voice neutral.

"Wheeljack is human," Mirage stated calmly, but he didn't bother to hide his irritation, which probably meant that the spy was furious, "No one told me. I had to find out from Sparkplug."

"I can see how that could be awkward," Prowl responded in what he hoped was a sympathetic tone, "Is he alright?"

"I think I scared the circuits out of him," Mirage answered dryly "but there will be no need to put me in the brig again."

"So why are you talking to me?"

"I'm hoping that you'll help me, what happened with Sparkplug made me think about the relationship Wheeljack and I have, then my thoughts turned to you and Jazz, everyone accepts your commitment to each other without question, but while I love Wheeljack deeply we don't seem to get that."

"I never really thought about it," Prowl mused, "We took a chance when we decided to show everyone what we had, fortunately it paid off or I doubt we would have stayed in the unit, but I think that's what makes the difference, we let them see us, and they recognised the love we shared, you tend to hide yourself away and Wheeljack isn't the most social of mechs, so although we know that you're together no one thinks about it much."

Mirage nodded, "You're saying that we need to be more open?"

"I think it would help," the tactician nodded, "But I'll warn you now that it's not easy, personally I'm not much good at public displays of affection, and it can feel awkward."

"So how do you manage?"

Prowl didn't even try to hide his smile that time, "With Jazz as a bond-mate I don't get much choice," he chuckled, "But the best way I've found is to just put everyone else out of your processor, think only of the mech you love and nothing else matters."

"Thank you," the spy said gratefully, he stood up and made to leave before an idea seemed to strike him and he turned back, "I know that I'm the last mech you would usually share things with, but if you should need someone to talk to… well… you're not alone in this,"

"I am alone," Prowl stated sorrowfully, "For the first time in deca-vorns, and it's a concept I cannot even begin to comprehend. Jazz is as much a part of me as my own central processor; I barely even exist without him."

Mirage was somewhat surprised by the tacticians sudden confession but he tried not to show it as he re-filed their cups and sat back down, "Not anymore you're not," he said gently.

* * *

When Jazz had suggested that Sideswipe should temporarily move in with Ratchet the red twin had been all for the idea, but as the day had gone on he'd started to have second thoughts and eventually decided to spend the first night of his separation from his brother in the rec room, where after several helpings of high-grade he had slipped into an uneasy recharge.

Once his duty-shift was completed he'd considered repeating the previous nights activities, but as the rec room had felt too crowded early on in the evening he'd taken himself for a long drive in the hope that it would ease his restlessness. He had returned to the Ark later than he had intended and peeked nervously into the room to see Prowl and Mirage deep in conversation, there were no signs that the unlikely pair would leave soon so Sideswipe resigned himself to the only alternative he could think of.

As he approached the C.M.O.s quarters doubt had crept into his processor, was it too late to call in? Should he knock or just enter that pass-code that the medic had given him? Would Ratchet welcome him or give in to his legendary temper at being disturbed so late in his recharge cycle?

Sideswipe had never thought of himself as an uncertain mech, but the events of the last day had taught him otherwise, it seemed to him that most of his confidence had been removed along with the connection he shared with his twin.

He had never really thought about such things before, he'd never had a reason to as Sunstreakers presence had been the one constant in his life, he had always believed that the only deactivation would separate them but he hadn't worried about that much either as he had been sure that Sunstreakers death would cause his own and vice-versa.

The red warrior had almost given up the hope of answering any of his questions when the medics door opened unexpectedly and Ratchet looked at him with his head tilted at a perplexed angle, "Are you going to stand there until dawn?" he asked gruffly, but there was also a concerned hue to his blue optics.

"I…I…" Sideswipe stammered but as he wasn't sure what he was going to say he couldn't get any further.

Ratchets worried expression deepened, "Come in," he beckoned as he stepped aside, "Primus, I think Prowl is handling what's happened better than you,"

"If you think drinking high-grade and talking to Mirage is handling then I guess he is," Sideswipe muttered.

"Well sometimes it works," Ratchet smirked, "But I guess we'll find that out in the morning when they stumble into the med-bay asking me to stop their processors spinning,"

On any other occasion Sideswipe would have laughed at the idea of Prowl suffering what the humans called a hangover, but he was simply too miserable so he sat down heavily on Ratchets berth and his face in his hands instead.

The medic sighed as he watched his partner, he'd never seen Sideswipe look defeated before, both of the twins were well known for their determination but the thought occurred to him that maybe Sideswipes 'bring it on' attitude was caused by his bond, or even a side effect of sharing a spark with his arrogant brother, his processor raced with possibilities that included the idea that maybe a divided spark could be literally translated, what if the twins were simply half a mech each and the bond shared their personalities?

"I can't stand this Ratch," Sideswipe muttered brokenly and the C.M.O. shook himself out of his musings immediately.

Trying to figure out the depth of a bond between twins was impossible for him, but he could comfort his younger lover and hopefully get him to the point where he was able to get through what promised to be a challenging time, "Easy now," he said softly as he slipped his arm around his distressed lover, "I've got you,"

* * *

Jazz had always considered himself a social mech, everyone knew that if something was going on he was probably slap-bang in the middle of it and grinning, but the reaction to his walking into a full rec room for the first time after becoming human still caught him off-guard.

The whole room fell absolutely silent for about the length of time it took him to blink, and then he was heckled from every corner, every mech present had questions, for a moment he considered giving them all tickets and telling them to get in line, but with the gratefully received help of the ever chatty Bluestreak and a slightly shell-shocked Wheeljack he managed to get through the worst of it.

"I've never been so popular," Wheeljack muttered when he had time to take a breath, "Maybe we should write a thesis or something."

Jazz chuckled, "A tour would be more fun," he shot back.

"I donno," Bluestreak put in, "I think one more round of 'what do cookies taste like?' and I'd be happy to take a vow of silence, and can you imagine how Sunny would react?"

"He has a point," Wheeljack agreed.

"He can take his point and…" Jazz began jovially but he trailed off when he looked up and saw his own face looking down at him, "I'm never gonna get used to that," he mumbled as he watched his own expression change from curious to bewildered.

"What is it?" Spike asked as Bluestreaks' face appeared above them.

"Me," Chip answered vaguely, "I'm standing," he tilted his head quizzically, "and… well… look at me, I barely recognised myself."

"Talk about a new look," Spike agreed, "Are they my clothes?"

"Yeah," Jazz admitted, "I raided your wardrobe, there wasn't much in Chips."

Chip knelt down so that he was closer to the level of the three humans and motioned for Jazz to turn round, which Jazz did before the young scientist spoke again, "How?" he asked.

"You'll have to ask Percy for the scientific bits," Jazz answered truthfully, "the rest is you, just different."

"You look good," Spike ventured.

"I look cool," Chip muttered disbelievingly, "But then it's not really me, is it? It's Jazz, he can make anything look cool."

"I think you're underselling yourself there Chip," Jazz assured his friend.

"Maybe," Chip muttered, "I just remembered something, I'll be back in a while," and without glancing back he fled the room.

"Was it somethin' I said?" Jazz asked.

Spike shook his head, "He just needs to think things through, he's fine."

Chip was in fact far from fine, the emotional subroutines of his temporary body had gone into overdrive the moment he had seen Jazz and he just didn't know what to do with them, was he upset? Was he angry? Was he jealous? Was he a horrendous mix of all three and then some? He didn't know, but he quickly realised one thing, in his hurry to escape he hadn't thought about where he was going.

Since he had first met the Autobots he'd always liked the control room, it's constant buzz of activity, and of course Teletraan I fascinated him, but he had avoided it since his switch for one simple reason, if Prowl wasn't in his office he was usually there.

The tactician looked up as he entered and Chip froze, he liked Prowl, with the possible exception of Bumblebee the Datsun was his closest friend among the Autobots, they played chess regularly, swapped books, but being in the body of Prowls boyfriend? Husband? Chip wasn't quite sure how to define what he had heard the others call a 'bond' despite Jazz' attempt to explain it.

"What's wrong Chip?" the tactician asked.

"Who said anything was wrong?" Chip asked, suddenly he was the centre of attention, even Prime was giving him a considering look, and he wished he could run away and hide somewhere.

"I know it's you in there Chip," Prowl assured him, "But you're inhabiting a body that I happen to know very well, so do I have to repeat my question or not?"

Chip saw no option but to give in, "Pretty much everything," he answered bluntly, regardless of the other mechs that were present.

Prowl glanced at Optimus Prime, who nodded briefly, "Let's go somewhere a little quieter," he suggested.

Chip agreed nervously, and feeling more self-conscious than he ever had in his life he followed Prowl along the short corridor that led to the tacticians office, where Prowl poured him a small amount of energon and sat him in a chair, "That's high-grade," Prowl informed him, "So for the love of Primus drink it slowly."

Chip looked at the gift suspiciously, he didn't drink as a rule, but then these were exceptional circumstances, he sipped it cautiously and tried to relax.

"What happened?" Prowl asked.

"Have you seen Jazz?" Chip demanded, "He's walking, swaggering even, he's been living my life for a grand total of three days and he's already living it better than me!" by the end of his statement he was almost shouting.

Prowl smirked, but not unkindly, "It's Jazz's nature to make the best of everything, and he can't help swaggering, it's what he does."

Chip shifted uncomfortably at the fondness in the tacticians tone, he'd never heard it before and wasn't quite sure what t make of it, "But it doesn't seem fair, I've been happy in that body all my life, but he's changed it, made it better than I ever could and made it look so easy. Maybe I'd better off as a robot," he finished glumly.

"Not in that body you don't," Prowl responded but there was no malice in his tone.

"All this is almost impossible for you, isn't it?" Chip asked, "You see Jazz but it's me inside and he's everything I'm not."

"You're loyal, brave and determined," Prowl informed him, "The two of you aren't so different, but I do know what you mean. All I want is the love of my life back where he's supposed to be."

Chip accepted the compliments with a nod, although he knew that if he had still been human his cheeks would be burning with embarrassment at the praise, and at Prowls confession, "So what can I do?" he asked.

"If you want to emulate him when you return to your body then watch him, learn from him, but if you don't try to answer this question, if Jazz is so perfect why does he need me?"

For a moment Chip stared at his friend, he was speechless, "How should I know?" he gasped out, "I don't know how your relationships works, why you got together, or any of the other million or so variables that could be factors," he said in a rush.

"Now you're sounding like yourself," Prowl said warmly.

"Who was I sounding like before?" Chip asked curiously.

"Jazz," Prowl answered, "But the side of Jazz that usually only I get to see, Jazz might make everything look effortless, but he does struggle sometimes, he gets miserable, he gets upset, it doesn't happen often but I've seen him kick furniture and lose his temper because things didn't seem fair to him, and that's why he needs me, Jazz lives by reflex and instinct, these are admirable qualities but if they aren't balanced out…" he left the statement hanging, Chips imagination could fill in the rest.

"So that's why he loves you?" Chip asked.

"Along with a thousand other reasons," Prowl answered with a smile, "But they are none of your business."

Chip chuckled at the tactician's tone and nodded, "I guess I have a lot to learn about relationships," he admitted, "I haven't had many."

"Neither had I before I met Jazz," Prowl confided, "Like you I was always too busy, but that's another thing that I don't think you need to know about. Now, I suggest that you think about what I've told you and get back to whatever it was you were doing."

"Is that you politely telling me to get out?" Chip asked with a slightly cheeky smile, "I suppose I should. Thanks Prowl."

"Glad I could help," Prowl said kindly, "But I would appreciate it if you kept quiet about our little chat. Jazz is usually the mech others go to when they have problems and I'm quite happy to keep it that way."

Chip grinned, he understood that Prowl had a reputation to maintain, with a nod he left the office and headed back to the rec room in search of Jazz.

* * *

"Okay," Jazz murmured as he lazily stretched his legs so that his feet rested on the dashboard, "I've got a wad of cash in my pocket, and we've got a van, so tell me again why we can't do the 'road-trip' thing?"

"Mostly 'cause 'the van' has been ordered to stay away from the interstate," Ironhide drawled, "and put your feet down."

"Yes sir," Jazz grinned, "but it would be fun."

"Yeah," Bluestreak agreed wistfully, "but shopping for human food is more important."

Jazz rolled his eyes, "Sure," he muttered, "this looks like the right place anyway," he added as Ironhide pulled into the retail park.

"Look at the size of it," Bluestreak gasped as the four of them climbed out of their transportation.

"This is going to take hours," Sunstreaker grumbled.

"It will if you don't get your aft in gear," Wheeljack put in.

The engineer took the lead, collected a shopping-cart and led them into the store.

"Okay, we stay together, stick to the list and…" Bluestreak trailed off as he realised that he was suddenly alone, "Err… guys?" he called after his three friends. He spotted Jazz first, it seemed that a rail of clothes had caught his attention and the young man was going through it with a gleeful grin on his face.

"Jazz we're supposed to be buying food," he reminded his friend.

"Aw c'mon Blue," Jazz whined, "Ya know I don't have a thing to wear."

"Fine, one piece each," Bluestreak relented, "Where's Sunny?"

"Over there," Jazz answered with a vague gesture in another direction.

Bluestreak sighed heavily and went in search of his lover, finding Sunstreaker in front of several shelves of shoes, "I told Jazz he can have one thing," he said tiredly, "Same goes for you."

"But shoes come in pairs," Sunstreaker protested.

"Fine, one pair." Bluestreak clarified, "Have you seen 'Jack?"

"Can't say I have,"

Bluestreak rubbed his face in irritation and sighed, "Fine," he snapped, "I'll find him, but if he's anywhere near the underwear department I'm taking Ironhide and going home," he purposefully ignored his partners sniggering as he walked away, "If you're listening Primus," he mumbled, "A little help would be nice,"

It took the young man a few minutes to find Wheeljack as the engineer had wandered further than the others and found the electronics aisle.

"Hey Blue," the engineer grinned, "Look at all the gadgets."

"One thing," Bluestreak instructed, "And when did I become the responsible one?"

Once his three friends were done, and Jazz had been sent back to the rail twice because his first choices were too expensive, Bluestreak pushed on and they finally made it into the food section of the store.

Fruits and vegetables were passed through without incident, but the next section quickly proved to be more of a challenge.

"Fish is good for humans," Wheeljack announced, "We should get some," and without waiting for an answer he picked up a pre-packaged but whole fish.

"I'm not eating that," Sunstreaker protested, "It's hideous."

"Fine," Wheeljack sighed, "We'll get a prettier fish for Sunstreaker."

Two hours and several arguments later, the four temporary humans left the store and loaded their haul into Ironhide, "What did you get? Bricks?" the older mech grumbled.

Jazz rolled his eyes and climbed into the driver's seat, "Let's talk about something else," he muttered tiredly, "If I ever have to go shopping again it will be too soon."

* * *

For the forth morning in a row Sunstreaker woke up and wished that he hadn't, he'd decided that being human was a pain about three seconds after he had become one, but apart from the few bruises he had suffered as a result of _the accident_ and a stubbed toe two days later, he hadn't really thought about the literal meaning of his conclusion.

He ached, there was no other word for it, his stomach was the worst but his whole body hurt, "This can't be normal," he muttered as he forced himself to sit up.

"What is it?" Bluestreak asked sleepily.

In answer Sunstreaker curled up into a ball and groaned, "I don't feel well."

"Want me to call Ratchet?" his lover offered helpfully.

"What does he know about humans?"

"Maybe Carly could help, it's her body after all, she knows it better than anyone."

"But that involves getting out of bed,"

Bluestreak looked stumped for a moment, then an idea struck him, "Humans have medicines, I saw some in the bathroom," and with that he bounced out of bed, dressed quickly, and hurried out only to return a few minutes later with an armful of bottles and packets.

Sunstreaker eyed them suspiciously, "I'm not taking all those."

"I wasn't sure which one was the right one and I didn't want to leave you alone so I brought them back, but I'm sure you won't have to take many," Bluestreak said in a rush.

With a half-hearted smile Sunstreaker pushed himself upright again and started looking at the labels, "Well I'm confused," he admitted after a few minutes, "And not feeling any better, Carly may be our best bet. Could you get me a coffee while I get dressed?"

"No problem babe," Bluestreak grinned and in a flash he was gone again.

Sunstreaker flopped back down on to the bed and allowed himself a moment of self pity, he'd experienced plenty of pain in his life, but usually it was because of Decepticons or occasionally his own or Sideswipes stupidity, never before had he suffered because his own body (well sort of) was rebelling against him. With a weary sigh he forced himself out of the warm cocoon he had made for himself and set about the task of making himself look presentable, he may have felt like he'd just had his internals pummelled by Devastator, but he would rather have walked into the inferno than left the room looking anything other than perfect.

Bluestreak returned after a few minutes, and presented him with a cup of steaming black liquid that Sunstreaker had to admit was one of the few pluses to being human, "Thanks Blue," he said fondly before he took a sip, he regretted it almost instantly as the cramps in his stomach intensified, "Primus, you've got to be kidding me," he scowled.

"What is it?" his lover asked.

"That makes it worse. Come on, the sooner we get this over with the better,"

The sound of laughter greeted Sunstreaker as he reached the top of the stairs, it seemed that Wheeljack and Jazz were enjoying themselves at least, barely pausing to say hello to his friends Sunstreaker led his lover out into the vast corridor and headed for their usual quarters.

"Makes you realise how big the Ark really is, doesn't it?" Bluestreak mused as they reached the turbo-lift that would take them to the right level.

"I love you dearly Blue," Sunstreaker growled, "but if you start on about how far we have to go, I'm gonna have to hurt you."

"I'm stronger than you now remember?" the young man chuckled, "this is probably the only time I could ever take you in a fight."

"Wanna test that theory?" Sunstreaker asked.

"Nope," Bluestreak answered firmly, "it might be fun, but Ratch would have our hides if either of us got hurt."

"Not while we're in these bodies," Sunstreaker pointed out.

"True, but no one holds a grudge as well as Ratchet, except maybe you."

Several long minutes later Sunstreaker and Bluestreak arrived at the door that led to their usual quarters and Bluestreak knocked politely. Spike answered the door and looked down at them, Bluestreak had to admit that it was rather odd to have his own face peering at him, but there were more important things to worry about and he shoved the thought aside.

"Could we see Carly?" he asked, "Sunny has a problem."

Spike nodded, led them in and helped them onto a chair so that they would be relatively comfortable during the conversation, Bluestreak was fine until he looked down at the space between his dangling feet and the floor, which was several feet below, he shuffled back a little and waited for Carly to join them.

She immerged from the wash rack a minute or two later, "It's okay Sunstreaker," she said cheerfully, "You're fine."

"I maybe, but you're not," Sunstreaker retorted, "Your stomach hurts; I want to know why so that I can make it stop."

Carly froze, this was a conversation that she had dreaded, she had hoped that the stress that her body was under would spare her from this fate, but apparently she just wasn't that lucky, "How much do you know about human reproductive systems Sunstreaker?" she asked tentatively.

"Oh boy," Spike whispered. Bluestreak looked at him in bewilderment, the young Autobot knew that is was physically impossible for a mech to blush, but apparently no one had told Spike this, "I'm just gonna… well… yeah," Spike mumbled before he bolted for the door.

Sunstreaker watched him go longingly, but shook himself and returned his attention to Carly, "Not much," he admitted, and all of a sudden he knew that this conversation was going to be even more awkward than the one they had had a few days before about bathrooms.

Half an hour later and knowing more about female anatomy than he had ever wanted to Sunstreaker led his lover out of the room, he had to admit that physically he felt better as Carly had solved the mystery of which pills he was supposed to take, but his mind was another matter.

By the time they arrived back at their quarters Sunstreaker was starting to feel drowsy, Carly had warned him that this was a side effect of the pills he had taken but before he could drag himself back to bed he had one thing to make very clear to his chatty lover, "If you breathe one word of this to Jazz or Wheeljack I will never speak to you again," he said in a tone that Bluestreak knew better than to argue with.

Bluestreak gave him a winning smile, "I think you've suffered enough," he agreed.

"Good, tell them I've got an upset stomach or something, and to leave me alone. I'm going back to bed and I'm not getting out again unless the Ark is on fire, hopefully this will all turn out to be a very long, very odd dream."

"If this is a dream then I dread to think what it says about your state of mind," Bluestreak said with slightly forced cheerfulness, but it had the desired effect of making Sunstreaker smile before he bolted inside and up the stairs.

"Everything okay Blue?" Jazz asked as soon as Bluestreak was in sight.

"Fine," Bluestreak answered quietly, suddenly feeling like a sparkling caught with his hand in the energon goodie container again. Despite all the time he had spent with Sideswipe Bluestreak had never acquired the red twins' handy habit of bending the truth, "But Sunny isn't feeling very well so it might be best to give him a wide berth for a few days."

Jazz arched an eyebrow, he already knew that there was more to the story, but he decided that there were some things he was probably better off not knowing.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's note; according to my account I posted my first story here two years ago today and I just wanted to say a massive **thank you **to everyone who has read/ reviewed/ offered help and otherwise put up with me during that time, it's been a roller-coaster ride and an absolute pleasure, and I couldn't be more grateful.

I barely recognise this chapter, it's gone through that many re-writes, I'm just glad it's done, and the even better news is that this whole farce is almost finished. The last few lines are thanks to the shadow cat, I had to work it in somewhere.

Until next time, take care and thanks again, FB.

Chapter 5

If he was honest Ironhide wasn't quite sure how he had ended up on patrol with Carly, he liked the girl well enough, and she had insisted that she wanted to feel useful, but the older mech was sure that there had to be a more suitable partner for her.

In her newly acquired Lamborghini alt-mode Carly could easily drive at twice his speed, the sleek sports car raced ahead of him swerved flamboyantly as laughter filled his audios, it was the first time she had been out of the Ark in over a week and it was understandable that she had some cobwebs to blow out.

"C'mon 'Hide," she teased him, "I know you can go faster than that."

"Slow down little lady," he scolded her, "patrol means looking around, not just getting through it as quickly as possible."

"But…"

"But nothing Carly, like it or not this is what we do, it ain't all action and savin' the day, the bigger part of what we do is trying to avoid trouble, although it usually knows where we are despite our efforts,"

Carly chuckled softly at his disparaging tone, revved her engine and was fairly sure that she heard her friend mutter "younglings," before she shot off again.

For eight days she had thought of herself as little more than a caretaker for the golden warriors' body, Sunstreakers habit of walking round her and snapping if he found any damage hadn't helped, but being out on the road was different and wonderful.

She was so lost in the enjoyment of it that she barely heard Ironhides warning call of, "Decepticons!" before she was forced to veer sharply to avoid the laser fire that missed her by inches.

"This is why we look!" Ironhide bellowed.

"Just don't tell Sunstreaker," Carly hissed back, "What do we do now?"

"Seekers have to turn round so we have a minute to find some cover, I've radioed for help but it'll take time to get here,"

"I don't know much about fighting," she admitted.

"You know which end of a gun is which," the warrior said gruffly, "Just point and shoot, keep them in the air or you'll have to learn hand to hand real quick,"

* * *

Spike never would have told Blaster that he was bored, he liked the mech, they went to concerts together and exchanged albums regularly but the communications officer had two main topics of conversation, music and the comms, and while he was on duty it was usually the later.

He was also worried about Carly, she had reached the point where she needed to get out for a while and gone off with Ironhide on patrol, everyone had assured him that she would be just fine, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong and after three hours of waiting his worries were finally justified.

"Ironhide to base, we got Seekers," the warrior barked through the comms, "Co-ordinates attached, no casualties yet."

"Copy that Ironhide," Blaster replied instantly, "Aerialbots are inbound, E.T.A. two minutes, additional support…"

Spike didn't wait to hear anymore, he shot out of the room as fast as he could go and only slowed to avoid squashing Jazz and Sunstreaker who were walking in the opposite direction.

"Hey, slow down now," Jazz warned him cheerfully, "Where's the fire?"

"Carly's in trouble, she and Ironhide were found by the Decepticons, I gotta…"

"You gotta do nothing," Jazz snapped, "You're coming from the hub, right? Which means Blaster has already spread the word, the others will take care of everything, right Sunny?"

"Except my paintwork," Sunstreaker snarled, "And I'll go to the Pit before I stay out of a fight."

"What are you gonna do?" Jazz hissed, "If you go out there you're lookin' to get squashed, Carly's bustin' a circuit to keep your body safe, the least you can do is return the favour."

"I know enough about fights to know where to be, I'm going with Spike." Sunstreaker retorted and he climbed into Spikes drivers' seat without another word.

Jazz rubbed his face with his hand, gave up all hope of talking them out of it and hopped into the passenger side, "least I can do is keep you two out of trouble," he muttered as they pulled out.

The Autobots had already left the Ark but they weren't so far ahead that Spike couldn't see the dust that the convoy kicked up and he followed them as quickly as he could.

As they reached a ridge that over looked the battleground Jazz made a grab for the steering wheel, turning Spike into a skid that ended a few feet behind a rocky out crop.

"What in the name of Cybertron are you doing?" Sunstreaker growled once they had come to a halt.

"And please don't do it again," Spike added quickly.

"Sorry, but it's too hot for us to go down there, Spike may look like an Autobot but he's not a warrior, and in these bodies neither are we, best we can do is lay down some cover fire from up here, understand?"

Sunstreaker nodded grudgingly, reached under his seat for the lock-box that most Autobots carried in case they were attacked while transporting humans and pulled out two laughably small pistols, "What the frag are we supposed to do with these?" he cursed, "I've used bullets bigger than this thing."

"And my rifle is taller than we are right now," Jazz reminded his friend, "At best we'll be a distraction but that could be what our friends need, now get. Spike, you might want to hang back, there's not much in the way of cover up here."

Spike backed off reluctantly, and Jazz turned to face Sunstreakers glare.

"Who died and made you Prime?" Sunstreaker grumbled as he took his position.

"I wouldn't take the job for all the music in the universe," Jazz grinned as he settled in at his friends shoulder.

Sunstreaker didn't reply as his eyes focused on the battle below, it seemed that the Seekers had also radioed for help and what he had believed would be nothing more than a little skirmish had quickly escalated into an all out brawl.

He watched intently as Sideswipe ploughed into a pair of cone-heads, his brothers pile-drivers smashed through their armour effortlessly and when they took to the skies in the hope of finding sanctuary the red warrior followed them without hesitation, or regard for his own safety, "He shouldn't be up there on his own," Sunstreaker muttered darkly, "He's too exposed."

"Like that ever bothered you," Jazz reminded him, "Silverbolt and co will watch out for him, always have."

"Since when? The Aerials don't even like us," Sunstreaker sneered.

"Liking someone doesn't come into it, we're Autobots Sunny, it's what we do," the young man retorted.

Jazz shook his head when his friend looked back down to the battlefield instead of acknowledging him, he'd known for vorns that Sunstreaker was a proud mech and that the idea of asking for help rarely occurred to him, but he had hoped for some reaction.

Sunstreaker didn't relax until Sideswipe was back on the ground, but his relief was short lived, only Mirage's lightning fast reactions saved the red warrior from Megatron's parting shots and both mechs went down in a tangle.

Jazz and Sunstreaker could only watch in horror as Ratchet rushed in, but while Mirage pushed himself up and shook himself, Sideswipe remained unmoving.

"Oh Primus," Sunstreaker cursed as he scrambled to his feet, "no bonds, no comms, not even a decent chassis, how do humans survive like this?"

"Beats me," his friend shrugged, "But they do, and for the time being so must we."

Sunstreaker didn't answer as they slid and shuffled down the steep bank and joined the rest of the Autobots.

"What are you two doing out here?" Ironhide asked as they approached.

Sunstreaker growled quietly and looked over to where Sideswipe lay, Ironhides gruff attitude softened a little, "It's never easy seeing a bonded get hurt, is it?" he asked.

"Try watching when you can't feel!" Sunstreaker snapped, "Try feeling as helpless as a newly sparked and not knowing if your twin is still online or not!" hot tears of anger and pure frustration burned his eyes, but he couldn't let them fall, and it took all of his restraint to keep his whole body from trembling.

He was only vaguely aware of Ironhide ordering him and the others back to the Ark, barely remembered anything about the drive home and as soon as he was through the door of his quarters he threw himself into one of the chairs and curled up in a ball of abject misery.

Wheeljack and Bluestreak, who had been preparing a meal, looked at him worriedly before they turned Jazz, "What happened?" Bluestreak asked.

"Sideswipe's in the med-bay, he'll be fine, but it's shaken Sunny up badly,"

"I'm fine," Sunstreaker protested although he was still having trouble keeping his hands still.

"Sunny," Bluestreak said softly, "It's alright, we know how hard…"

"Do you!" Sunstreaker interrupted him angrily, "tell me how Bluestreak? How can you know what it's like to have a bond that you've lived with and depended on since you were sparked taken away? How can you know how much it hurts?"

Bluestreak flinched at his lovers harsh demands and Jazz stepped between them protectively, "He may not, and I'm glad he doesn't," he snarled, "But you're not the only bonded mech in this room?" Jazz' expression barely changed but the pain and loss he was suffering were suddenly easy to see.

Sunstreaker scowled but he couldn't look any of his friends in the eyes, he was ashamed of his outburst, but he couldn't back down, words wouldn't have been enough anyway, there was nothing he could do, so did the only thing he could think of and stormed out.

Wheeljack stared sorrowfully at the floor for a moment after Sunstreaker had left, he had known all along that his mistake had caused his friends a lot of pain, but they had hid it well, Sunstreaker had tried really hard to make do, and Jazz had made a point of enjoying being human while it lasted and done his best to make the rest of them see the brighter side of recent events, but it seemed to the engineer that even Jazz's smiles had run out, "Do what you can," he told Bluestreak kindly as he headed out.

"Where are you going?" Bluestreak asked.

"Back to the lab, I'll eat later but right now I need to be doing what I can to end this nightmare."

* * *

A few hours passed, they seemed like days to Bluestreak, he had watched Jazz pick at his dinner then retreat to his room, tried to find Sunstreaker but failed. He felt useless, the mechs that meant the most to him were suffering and he didn't have the experience to help them, and by the time Wheeljack returned he was pacing restlessly.

"How are they?" the engineer asked.

"Miserable," Bluestreak replied sullenly, "Sunny still hasn't come back yet and Jazz has locked himself in his room, I almost wish that Sunny had done that as I could probably bypass his door, although I'd most likely get my head bitten off, but we both know how good Jazz is with locks."

"He may be good," Wheeljack said softly, "but not even he can override the medical emergency fail-safes and I got the code from Ratchet before I came back."

Bluestreak smiled half-heartedly, and followed Wheeljack to Jazz' door, a moment later it was open and the pair stepped gingerly inside. Jazz didn't even look round as they entered.

"Jazz?" Wheeljack asked softly.

With a heavy sigh Jazz looked at his friends, "You aren't giving up, are you?"

"No, and I've had lessons in being stubborn from you and Ratchet so you don't stand a chance," the engineer said as he crossed the small room, "We're in this together Jazz."

"Sorry," Jazz said softly, "I'm just feeling a little out of sorts."

"It's not your fault, I'm to blame for this, not you, but I'm going to set things right too, and in two more days, three at the most, we're all going to be back where we belong."

"Two more days," Jazz repeated as he turned back to the window.

"Can you hold on that long?"

"With a little help from my friends," the younger man answered.

"You got it," Wheeljack stated firmly, and Bluestreak stepped closer to give his friend a hug, "Okay, one down, one to go," the engineer said after a few seconds, "or we could just slip Sunny some sleeping pills and deal with him once he's back in his own body," he added with just a hint of a smile.

"Sunny will probably do less damage now," Jazz pointed out, "but I won't say I'm not tempted."

Bluestreak shot them both slightly amused looks and led them out, he had no idea where his lover had gone and the Ark seemed bigger than ever, but he didn't know what else to do.

* * *

Sunstreaker knew that he should go back to his quarters, it was getting late and he felt emotionally exhausted, but he couldn't quite bring himself to do it. He'd spent a few hours wandering around the Ark and even visited the med-bay to check on his twin, but everywhere felt too crowded and eventually he'd decided to get some fresh air.

The cool desert breeze had refreshed him a little, and he spent a while just looking up at the cloudless, star-filled sky before he realised that he wasn't alone.

Mirage was sat on a rock not far (by Autobot standards anyway) from the entrance to the Ark, and looking as lonely as Sunstreaker felt. With a soft cough Sunstreaker announced his presence and the blue and white spy turned to look at him.

"If you want to be left alone I'll leave," Sunstreaker began awkwardly, "I just wondered what you were doing out here by yourself."

"Probably the same thing as you," Mirage answered forlornly, "they mean well, but there is only so much company a mech can take."

"I hear that," Sunstreaker nodded, "If I hear Wheeljack apologise once more I may have to slap him."

Mirage gave a half-hearted chuckle, "I'll hold him down for you," he offered.

Sunstreaker forced himself to smile, but it soon faded and he kicked a small rock away in frustration, "I just whole mess over with," he muttered.

"You're not the only one," Mirage said sympathetically, "When you see Wheeljack tell him that I miss him, but I just don't know what to say to him right now," and with that the spy disappeared.

"See you around Mirage," Sunstreaker said quietly although he couldn't be sure whether or not the blue and white mech was still close enough to hear him, "And thanks," with a heavy sigh he turned and walked away.

He barely made it to the Arks entrance before Bluestreak cannon-balled into him, "Where have you been?" his lover demanded, "You shouldn't be out here all by yourself, we've been looking for you for ages."

"I wasn't alone," Sunstreaker corrected him, then he looked at Jazz and Wheeljack and wrapped his arms around Bluestreak, "I've never been alone and I probably should have worked that out sooner."

"Yeah, you should have," Jazz chided him, "You're a proud, vain, ass-stubborn mech Sunstreaker, and you sure as hell can't cook, but we'll put up with you anyway."

Sunstreaker smiled, "You're never going to forgive me for that, are you?"

"You trashed the kitchen, nearly poisoned us and left me with the mess," Jazz said indignantly, "C'mon, let's go pester Ratch and Sides for a while."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

It had seemed like an age (although Wheeljacks prediction had only been a couple of days short) since _the accident_ in the lab, and while all those involved agreed that the experience hadn't been all bad, not one of them wanted to put off getting back to their usual forms for any longer than they had to, so they were all happy when his call finally came through the comms.

Jazz hesitated at the door to Wheeljack's lab, for the first time since he had met the engineer he actually considered knocking, but he rejected the idea just as quickly as it came to him and marched in, "Hey 'Jack, you in here?" he called cheerfully.

"No I always leave the door open when I'm out so some jumped up officer with a deactivation inclination can just wonder in," Wheeljack answered immediately but without any real malevolence.

"Sorry," Jazz beamed at him, "but it's kinda hard to tell when nothin's explodin',"

Wheeljack shook his head slightly, "If you were a smarter mech Jazz you'd have worked by now that there is a reason why everyone else, including Ratchet and the twins, at least asks before they come in here," he chuckled.

"If you were a smarter mech then none of them would have to," Jazz shot back good-naturedly.

"You got me there," Wheeljack admitted, "But not to worry," he said dismissively, "Everyone come on in, nothing is going to go Boom today," he added confidently as both he and Jazz realised that no one had followed Jazz inside.

"You sure about that?" Bluestreak asked tentatively.

"Absolutely," Wheeljack confirmed, "everything is ready and running perfectly, which just leaves us with the decision of who goes first."

"I will," Jazz volunteered, "I'd rather get this over and done with."

"No," Prowl stated cautiously, "there's too much of a risk involved," he explained quickly, "It's not that I don't trust you Wheeljack, but if anything should go wrong…"

"There's a risk to anyone who goes first," Jazz argued, "But someone has to."

"Then let it be me," Bluestreak put in calmly, "I don't have a bonded to worry about, and we need Wheeljack at the controls," the young man levelled a challenging glare at Prowl, daring him to argue, and the tactician knew that not only was he already beaten, but that he'd never really stood a chance.

Sunstreaker caught the young man's arm as he started to move, "Be careful," he said softly.

"It'll be fine Sunny," Bluestreak murmured fondly, he gave his lover a quick, tender kiss and headed for the partitioned section of the lab with Spike close behind him.

"Now or never," Wheeljack said grimly as he started pressing buttons, "Good luck Blue, you too Spike."

"They don't need it," Jazz said with a pointed glance to his bond-mate.

"Jazz I didn't mean to…"

"Prowl," Jazz interrupted the tactician, "You don't need to explain, it's in your nature to be cautious, just like it's in mine to rush in without thinking, fortunately for us Blue seems to have learnt to balance the two or we'd be here for another fortnight."

With one last deep breath Wheeljack activated his contraption, lights flashed, things beeped and then it was over.

"Did it work?" Jazz asked breathlessly.

"Only one sure way to find out," Wheeljack muttered nervously before he raised his voice, "Hey Spike, you okay in there?"

"I think I'm going to be sick," Spike answered and to the relief of all present the voice was unmistakably human.

Everyone moved at once then, Sunstreaker, Jazz and Prowl went straight to Bluestreak while Carly, Chip and Sparkplug hurried to Spikes side.

"How do you feel?" Jazz asked the young mech.

"I think the humans call it woozy," Bluestreak mumbled.

"Let me look at him," Ratchet ordered from his place at the rear of the small crowd.

"I'm okay Ratch," the mech assured him as he rose to his feet with some help from Prowl, "Wow, we really are tall, aren't we?"

Once everyone had calmed down again Wheeljack spoke, "Okay round two, who's up?"

Jazz looked at Sunstreaker, "You wanna flip a coin?" he asked.

"No," Sunstreaker snapped, "a few minutes won't make much difference either way."

"Thank you," Jazz smiled gratefully before he moved to the other side of the room with Chip, "Okay 'Jack, let's do it."

Prowl watched as the process was repeated and knew it had worked when Jazz' presence in his spark reasserted itself with such force that he would have fallen if Bluestreak hadn't caught him by the shoulders.

"Is everything okay?" the younger mech asked with concern.

"Absolutely fine," Prowl grinned, although he was a little taken aback by the way his beloved emotionally ploughed into him. Quickly he took the few steps needed to be at his bond-mates side, he was about to help Jazz sit up when the saboteur leapt at him, holding him tightly and forcing the bond wide open and filling it with his love for the tactician, "Ja…" Prowl was going to tell his lover to calm down but on the first syllable Jazz captured his mouth in a deep, passionate kiss and he never got the chance.

Behind him he heard Sideswipe laugh, "I guess everything's back to normal," the red warrior said cheerfully, "Well almost," he added with a look to his brother, "C'mon Sunny, your turn."

Prowl pulled Jazz to his feet so that Carly could take her position and allowed himself to relax for the first time in over two weeks, Jazz' delight at being back in his own body and having a working bond was infectious and he was content to just let his lovers emotions and thoughts wash over him, and apart from one brief flicker in the saboteurs attention Jazz seemed content to do the same.

"_You just can't stay away from the hub can you?"_ Prowl asked fondly once Jazz had done whatever it was that he was doing.

"_You know me,"_ Jazz returned cheerfully, _"I just had to make sure that things hadn't fallen apart while I was incommunicado."_

"_A likely story,"_ Prowl thought dryly, the smirk that Jazz gave him was more than enough to tell him that something was going on.

As the lights and sounds of the machine filled the room again Sideswipe twitched and leant heavily on Ratchet, "Are you alright?" the medic asked.

"Sunny tends to hit like a bullet-train," the red twin grinned, "It's great to have him back, but after two weeks apart he isn't in the mood to be gentle."

The C.M.O. chuckled fondly and let Sideswipe go once he was sure that he could stand on his own.

Sunstreaker sat up, inspected himself and smiled, "So the nightmare's over," he said cheerfully.

"Yep," Jazz agreed, "Ratch why don't you make a start on your checks? Prowl and I can keep an optic on Wheeljack and Sparkplug."

Ratchet nodded and led his small group out, Jazz took Wheeljacks place at the controls and with a glance towards the door that anyone but Prowl would have missed activated the device for the last time.

"You can come out now 'Raj," Jazz said softly once the procedure was underway.

The air shimmered to Prowls left and Mirage seemed to step out of nowhere, shot the two other mechs a quick, grateful smile and focused his attention on what would soon be Wheeljack's body again.

The machine worked it's magic for the final time and Sparkplug and Wheeljack glanced at each other and nodded before the engineer realised who had joined them.

"Welcome back," Mirage said softly as he moved to his partners side and embraced him, "Don't ever do that again," he added in a fond tone although the warning was clear.

Their tender moment was interrupted by a loud crunching sound, everyone in the room turned to see Jazz with a handful of wires that he had just ripped out of the machine and a grin on his face, "That'll make sure he doesn't," he said cheerfully before he swung his arm around Prowls waist and led them out, "I'd have blown it up, but as an explosion caused this charade I thought I better not," he informed them as they crossed the hall.

A little more reluctantly than the others Wheeljack made his way to the med-bay, Ratchets check-ups were underway and were really only a formality before everyone returned to their duties, but he wasn't looking forward to facing Sunstreaker now that the warrior was back in his own body.

Sunstreaker met his optics as soon as he was through the door, _not a good sign,_ Wheeljack thought; he gave Mirages hand an affectionate squeeze and moved forward to face his fate.

"Go ahead," he said with forced confidence, "Take your best shot."

"I've thought about this moment a lot over the last few days," Sunstreaker said coldly, and Wheeljack couldn't help noticing the way that the golden warriors' fingers flexed, as if they were getting ready to tear something apart, but then he relaxed completely and smiled, "but I doubt Mirage would ever forgive me if I knocked you senseless just after he got you back."

"I doubt he'd notice," Jazz heckled across the room.

"Whose side are you on?" Wheeljack retorted.

"Mine," Prowl answered possessively as he wrapped his arms around his bond-mate, "And as ranking officer here I'm almost tempted to let Sunstreaker have his revenge, but I have come up with an alternative."

Wheeljack flinched, he wasn't sure which was worse; Sunstreaker could be brutal, but Prowl rarely let anyone off lightly either, "I'll save Ratchet the trouble of rebuilding me and take your idea," he said reluctantly.

"Very well," the tactician nodded, "Mirage," he said authoritatively, "I hereby give you permission to keep Wheeljack out of trouble and out of my sight by any means you deem necessary for at least a week, understood?"

"Yes Sir," Mirage answered with a quick salute, and a sly smile before he took Wheeljack by the arm and led him out.

As soon as they were out of the door Prowl poked his bond-mate in on of his transformation seams and gave him a stern look, "It's much easier to keep a straight face during that sort of thing when you are not cackling through the bond," he explained.

Jazz gave him an unrepentant smile.

"I think you let Wheeljack off easy," Sunstreaker grumbled as he wrapped one arm around Sideswipe and the other round Bluestreak.

"Maybe I did," Prowl retorted.

"But I doubt 'Raj will," Jazz finished for him, "And as 'Jack has been working his aft off to get that damned machine working again and I just ripped it's internals out I think he's suffered enough."

Prowl nodded in agreement, "If you hadn't done it I would have," he said lightly before he addressed Ratchet, "Are you finished with Jazz now?"

"Yes, he's fine," the medic nodded, "And I'm sure that you have better things to do than hang around here."

Neither of the black and whites' said anything on the subject but Jazz's grin spoke volumes, "See you later mechs," he said cheerfully as Prowl led him out.

"Somehow I doubt that any of us will be seeing either of them for a couple of days," Sideswipe smirked, "Let's go for a drive."

* * *

A while later, once things had settled down Spike, Carly, Chip and Sparkplug took their usual seats around their dinning table in their quarters and began to eat, "It's great to have proper food again," Spike said after a few mouthfuls.

"And coffee," his father added.

"And clothes," Carly smiled, "I know robots don't need to wear them but it felt really odd not getting dressed in the morning."

"Speaking of clothes," Chip put in, "There are rather a lot in my wardrobe that aren't mine, and I think I've got most of your music collection as well."

"You're not keeping your new look then?" Spike asked curiously.

"Maybe now and again, but most of the stuff Jazz acquired isn't really suitable for the lab, and I know some of it's yours anyway."

"I should have asked earlier," Carly interrupted them, "How does it feel to be up and walking?"

Chip grinned, "Odd, but in a good way," he answered, "My legs ache a bit but I'm guessing that Jazz took the worst of that, mostly I can't believe that I never thought of asking the Autobots if they could help me."

"I guess there are a lot of things that we never thought to ask about," Spike said thoughtfully, then he chuckled, "Like how many of them were sharing each others berths."

"I think it's nice that they have someone," Carly said quietly.

"I'm not begrudging them that, I just never would have guessed, especially Wheeljack and Mirage, and I know I wasn't the only one who gaped when they came into the med-bay together."

"It was more their departure that had us standing there with our mouths open," Chip reminded him.

Spike couldn't help noticing that his father had turned an interesting shade of red and gave him a considering look, Sparkplug hastily finished the last of his meal and retreated to the kitchen area, "Did you see what one of them did?" he asked mildly, "Someone's alphabetised our cupboards."

"That's nothing," Carly informed him, "Sunstreaker colour-coded my wardrobe and my make-up draw."

Spike nearly choked on his food, "At least our room is tidy now," he said after Chip gave him a thump between the shoulder-blades, "Except for my clothes, I guess Bluestreak isn't the tidy one in that relationship."

"I doubt Jazz helped," Chip added, "It's going to take me days to get my room back to how I like it, and I have no idea what he's done with my alarm clock."

Author's note: And that's all folks, and yes I did add in the last bit when I realised that the humans kind of disappeared after everyone was back in the right bodies and I couldn't face doing another rewrite. This fic has taken forever to finish and at the moment I'm just glad it's done, I'm sure that one day I'll look back on it fondly, but right now I'm sick of the sight of it, I never realised how much easier having a beta made everything, as I've had to reread it several hundred times and just hope that I'm not making piles of mistakes. The next fic will start going up soon but I'm not sure when yet. Thanks for reading, take care, FB.


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